THE WORLD'S WORST TEST AUDIENCE
In a Guardian interview ahead of the second series of Ellie & Natasia, Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou discuss appearing on Last One Laughing UK, the competition built around comedians trying to break other comedians while never laughing themselves. Their failure to crack Bob Mortimer became one of the interview's irresistible details.
That needs an important distinction: Mortimer's refusal to smile was the point of the game, not an unfavorable verdict on their work. There is something uniquely miserable about delivering a punchline to someone whose success depends on withholding even the tiniest courtesy laugh.
THE MUMS BECAME MUMS
Long before motherhood, White and Demetriou played gloriously self-important lifestyle mothers who seemed capable of making hygiene a moral emergency. By the time they made the new series, both performers had become mothers themselves. Reality had wandered straight into the character bible.
The duo told the Guardian they did not want the new season to become merely a show about pregnancy. Instead their familiar characters return alongside sketches involving online influencers, lifestyle performance and people consumed by the act of broadcasting themselves.
THE INTERNET IS THE NEW SKETCH SHOW
The BBC has scheduled the new series for October 21, with Steve Coogan among its guests. One advertised sketch involves an intensely committed review of bread. Another returns to internet beauty entrepreneurs Donna and Nikki. The stakes are tiny. The confidence is immense.
Comedy used to exaggerate social types into absurd characters. The challenge now is that those types can post their own videos, complete with ring lights, sponsorships and lengthy explanations of the joke. White and Demetriou have picked a rich target: people trying very hard to seem natural.